any text in my charts is almost illegible due to very poor font rendering
quality.
Even when using report designs form the BIRT project example pages, charts
rendered on my machine look nowhere near as good as in the screen shots
that go with those designs.
I looked through FAQs, WIKIs and googled the problem, but I can not figure
out what is wrong with my installation.

The problem exists in the 2.1.1 standalone report designer _and_ in
eclipse 3.2.1 with BIRT plugins (before I broke it by updating using the
update manager). So I guess it is a problem with my Java + AWT???

I have this problem as well (and have had it since v2.1). I was never able
to figure out the source of the problem but I did find a workaround.

1. Try selecting the chart that looks bad and inspecting the properties for
it.
2. Clear the values for the height and width.
a. the chart should remain whatever size you last resized it to.
3. Preview/display the report

On my system, the above three steps fixes the fonts so that they are
actually legible. The problem is that anytime you edit the chart you have
to repeat the process. Tedious yes, but it's the best solution I've found.

For what it's worth, I believe I tried every chart type, format, and unit
combination available in an attempt to fix the fonts.

Jonathan Brown napsal(a):
> I have this problem as well (and have had it since v2.1). I was never able
> to figure out the source of the problem but I did find a workaround.
>
> 1. Try selecting the chart that looks bad and inspecting the properties for
> it.
> 2. Clear the values for the height and width.
> a. the chart should remain whatever size you last resized it to.
> 3. Preview/display the report
>
> On my system, the above three steps fixes the fonts so that they are
> actually legible. The problem is that anytime you edit the chart you have
> to repeat the process. Tedious yes, but it's the best solution I've found.

> I have this problem as well (and have had it since v2.1). I was never able
> to figure out the source of the problem but I did find a workaround.

> 1. Try selecting the chart that looks bad and inspecting the properties for
> it.
> 2. Clear the values for the height and width.
> a. the chart should remain whatever size you last resized it to.
> 3. Preview/display the report

> On my system, the above three steps fixes the fonts so that they are
> actually legible. The problem is that anytime you edit the chart you have
> to repeat the process. Tedious yes, but it's the best solution I've found.

> For what it's worth, I believe I tried every chart type, format, and unit
> combination available in an attempt to fix the fonts.

> jb

> "Jan Schroeder" <jan-schroeder@gmx.net> wrote in message
> news:741721b6721b226420af0f0beee2a800$1@www.eclipse.org...
>> any text in my charts is almost illegible due to very poor font rendering
>> quality.
>> Even when using report designs form the BIRT project example pages, charts
>> rendered on my machine look nowhere near as good as in the screen shots
>> that go with those designs.
>> I looked through FAQs, WIKIs and googled the problem, but I can not figure
>> out what is wrong with my installation.
>>
>> The problem exists in the 2.1.1 standalone report designer _and_ in
>> eclipse 3.2.1 with BIRT plugins (before I broke it by updating using the
>> update manager). So I guess it is a problem with my Java + AWT???
>>
>> WinXP
>> Sun JRE 1.5.0_06-b05
>> awt.toolkit=sun.awt.windows.WToolkit
>>
>> Any help would be very much appreciated.
>>
>>

Ok, can you try something: When you see the invalid image, right click and
save it to disk. Then open it with an image viewer (IE will do). Is it still
distorted or not? That will tell us if the problem happens in Swing or if
the size set by the viewer is somehow wrong.

- If it's not distorted, can you check the image size with an image editor,
and compare it to the size set in the report design. Can you also try to
insert a regular image in the report, set its real size in the properties,
and see if it appears distorted when previewed?

- If the image is distorted, it's probably something wrong in your Swing
lib. I would advise to uninstall/reinstall java, using the latest version.

Thanks.

David

> I tried the all-in-one. I first encountered the problem in 2.1.1
> (when I first installed BIRT) but I'm using 2.2 at present.
>
> My systems are configured for US locale.
>
> "David Michonneau" <dmichonneau@actuate.com> wrote in message
> news:9c678db74f88c9084ae4ffe7e6@news.eclipse.org...
>
>> I tried this report, and the chart fonts look fine both in SVG and
>> PNG. I use the 2.1.1 IDE build. Did you try to get the all-in-one
>> build for 2.1.1? Are you running in US locale by the way?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> David
>>
>>> For the screenshots I used the example report at
>>> http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/examples/reports/birt2.1 /comboch
>>> ar
>>> t/index.php
>>> to make sure there isn't anything wrong with my report design
>>> itself.
>>> In this report the chart size is given in inches.
>>> David Michonneau wrote:
>>>> What size did you set for the chart? Is it in %?
>>>>
>>>> Can you attach a sample report with the problem?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> David
>>>>
>>>>> here is a screenshot of how it looks on my machine:
>>>>> http://home.nc.rr.com/potato/birt/chart.jpg
>>>>>
>>>>> it should look like this:
>>>>> http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/examples/reports/ 2.1/co
>>>>> mb
>>>>> oc
>>>>> hart/final.JPG
>>>>> Jan
>>>>> PS: a workaround was posted later in this threat, but a developer
>>>>> might still be interested in this problem. BTW, I switched JDKs
>>>>> and
>>>>> still have the same problem.

Now _that_ is shocking. I have been struggling with this problems for many
days (weeks?). I _know_ I tried various versions of Birt (stand alone
2.1.1 (with different JREs/JDKs); Eclipse 3.2.1 all in one; 3.2.1 all in
one + updated plugins) and always had the font problem. Yesterday I
deleted the height and width values for the chart in the report design (as
recommended in this thread) and the font looked good. Now I can not
recreate the font problem anymore. Even when specifying values for height
and width the chart font looks great.
I downloaded the example report again to make sure I didn't make any other
changes -> still works fine. I can not make the fonts look bad anymore.

I don't think it was a problem with the viewer (I tried the built in
viewer and configured Firefox as an external viewer -> both had the
problem).

David Michonneau wrote:

> Ok, can you try something: When you see the invalid image, right click and
> save it to disk. Then open it with an image viewer (IE will do). Is it still
> distorted or not? That will tell us if the problem happens in Swing or if
> the size set by the viewer is somehow wrong.

> - If it's not distorted, can you check the image size with an image editor,
> and compare it to the size set in the report design. Can you also try to
> insert a regular image in the report, set its real size in the properties,
> and see if it appears distorted when previewed?

> - If the image is distorted, it's probably something wrong in your Swing
> lib. I would advise to uninstall/reinstall java, using the latest version.

> Thanks.

> David

>> I tried the all-in-one. I first encountered the problem in 2.1.1
>> (when I first installed BIRT) but I'm using 2.2 at present.
>>
>> My systems are configured for US locale.
>>
>> "David Michonneau" <dmichonneau@actuate.com> wrote in message
>> news:9c678db74f88c9084ae4ffe7e6@news.eclipse.org...
>>
>>> I tried this report, and the chart fonts look fine both in SVG and
>>> PNG. I use the 2.1.1 IDE build. Did you try to get the all-in-one
>>> build for 2.1.1? Are you running in US locale by the way?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>>> For the screenshots I used the example report at
>>>> http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/examples/reports/birt2.1 /comboch
>>>> ar
>>>> t/index.php
>>>> to make sure there isn't anything wrong with my report design
>>>> itself.
>>>> In this report the chart size is given in inches.
>>>> David Michonneau wrote:
>>>>> What size did you set for the chart? Is it in %?
>>>>>
>>>>> Can you attach a sample report with the problem?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> David
>>>>>
>>>>>> here is a screenshot of how it looks on my machine:
>>>>>> http://home.nc.rr.com/potato/birt/chart.jpg
>>>>>>
>>>>>> it should look like this:
>>>>>> http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/examples/reports/ 2.1/co
>>>>>> mb
>>>>>> oc
>>>>>> hart/final.JPG
>>>>>> Jan
>>>>>> PS: a workaround was posted later in this threat, but a developer
>>>>>> might still be interested in this problem. BTW, I switched JDKs
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> still have the same problem.

After installing the main component, I ran the update wizard (because I
needed the Subversion plugin to get to my work) and discovered that there
was a critical missing dependency on Apache Xerces 2.8. I installed the
missing Apache component followed by Subclipse 1.1.9.

I sync'd my project and set the width of the chart to 100%. The height
value is left unspecified (per my workaround of not specifying values to
keep the fonts from becoming blurry). FYI: The last time I did the
set/clear workaround for height, I had used a value of 200 points.

Using the interval viewer to preview the report, the image was blurry and I
saved it to disk.

I switched over to the properties for the chart and cleared the width value.
In the designer, the size of the chart was unchanged by this action.

I then switched over to the Preview tab and the fonts were clear. I saved
this image to disk as well.

In looking at the two images outside of eclipse, they are identical.
Neither is distorted and the file size is the same.

I'll try to do the other actions you requested later tonight when I get a
chance. Let me know if there is something else you're curious about based
on the above info.

Lastly, I'm using JDK 1.5.0_10.

jb

"David Michonneau" <dmichonneau@actuate.com> wrote in message
news:9c678db75398c9086666ffec80@news.eclipse.org...
> Ok, can you try something: When you see the invalid image, right click and
> save it to disk. Then open it with an image viewer (IE will do). Is it
> still distorted or not? That will tell us if the problem happens in Swing
> or if the size set by the viewer is somehow wrong.
>
> - If it's not distorted, can you check the image size with an image
> editor, and compare it to the size set in the report design. Can you also
> try to insert a regular image in the report, set its real size in the
> properties, and see if it appears distorted when previewed?
>
> - If the image is distorted, it's probably something wrong in your Swing
> lib. I would advise to uninstall/reinstall java, using the latest version.
>
> Thanks.
>
> David
>
>> I tried the all-in-one. I first encountered the problem in 2.1.1
>> (when I first installed BIRT) but I'm using 2.2 at present.
>>
>> My systems are configured for US locale.
>>
>> "David Michonneau" <dmichonneau@actuate.com> wrote in message
>> news:9c678db74f88c9084ae4ffe7e6@news.eclipse.org...
>>
>>> I tried this report, and the chart fonts look fine both in SVG and
>>> PNG. I use the 2.1.1 IDE build. Did you try to get the all-in-one
>>> build for 2.1.1? Are you running in US locale by the way?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>>> For the screenshots I used the example report at
>>>> http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/examples/reports/birt2.1 /comboch
>>>> ar
>>>> t/index.php
>>>> to make sure there isn't anything wrong with my report design
>>>> itself.
>>>> In this report the chart size is given in inches.
>>>> David Michonneau wrote:
>>>>> What size did you set for the chart? Is it in %?
>>>>>
>>>>> Can you attach a sample report with the problem?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> David
>>>>>
>>>>>> here is a screenshot of how it looks on my machine:
>>>>>> http://home.nc.rr.com/potato/birt/chart.jpg
>>>>>>
>>>>>> it should look like this:
>>>>>> http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/examples/reports/ 2.1/co
>>>>>> mb
>>>>>> oc
>>>>>> hart/final.JPG
>>>>>> Jan
>>>>>> PS: a workaround was posted later in this threat, but a developer
>>>>>> might still be interested in this problem. BTW, I switched JDKs
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> still have the same problem.
>
>

That's the problem. % size will distort images and charts in a web viewer,
you should use an absolute size in inches or points instead.

Let me explain why:
This % size in HTML is interpreted by the browser to resize your image dynamically
depending on the space available (on your browser window). Needless to say,
BIRT does not know about the browser window size you use, nor will regenerate
an updated image if you change it. So it will generate the chart image based
on a given default size, and the browser will use that image and extend/shrink
it to use 100% of the space. As a result the image is distorted.

If you do not set any size, the browser will use the image real size, and
so it will be fine.

Let me know if you also have issues when settings the width in points.

Thanks,

David

> I installed the absolute latest drop for this test: the "Report
> Designer Full Eclipse Install" from
> http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/build.php?build=N -R1-2.2M4-
> 200701100630
>
> After installing the main component, I ran the update wizard (because
> I needed the Subversion plugin to get to my work) and discovered that
> there was a critical missing dependency on Apache Xerces 2.8. I
> installed the missing Apache component followed by Subclipse 1.1.9.
>
> I sync'd my project and set the width of the chart to 100%. The
> height value is left unspecified (per my workaround of not specifying
> values to keep the fonts from becoming blurry). FYI: The last time I
> did the set/clear workaround for height, I had used a value of 200
> points.
>
> Using the interval viewer to preview the report, the image was blurry
> and I saved it to disk.
>
> I switched over to the properties for the chart and cleared the width
> value. In the designer, the size of the chart was unchanged by this
> action.
>
> I then switched over to the Preview tab and the fonts were clear. I
> saved this image to disk as well.
>
> In looking at the two images outside of eclipse, they are identical.
> Neither is distorted and the file size is the same.
>
> I'll try to do the other actions you requested later tonight when I
> get a chance. Let me know if there is something else you're curious
> about based on the above info.
>
> Lastly, I'm using JDK 1.5.0_10.
>
> jb
>
> "David Michonneau" <dmichonneau@actuate.com> wrote in message
> news:9c678db75398c9086666ffec80@news.eclipse.org...
>
>> Ok, can you try something: When you see the invalid image, right
>> click and save it to disk. Then open it with an image viewer (IE will
>> do). Is it still distorted or not? That will tell us if the problem
>> happens in Swing or if the size set by the viewer is somehow wrong.
>>
>> - If it's not distorted, can you check the image size with an image
>> editor, and compare it to the size set in the report design. Can you
>> also try to insert a regular image in the report, set its real size
>> in the properties, and see if it appears distorted when previewed?
>>
>> - If the image is distorted, it's probably something wrong in your
>> Swing lib. I would advise to uninstall/reinstall java, using the
>> latest version.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> David
>>
>>> I tried the all-in-one. I first encountered the problem in 2.1.1
>>> (when I first installed BIRT) but I'm using 2.2 at present.
>>>
>>> My systems are configured for US locale.
>>>
>>> "David Michonneau" <dmichonneau@actuate.com> wrote in message
>>> news:9c678db74f88c9084ae4ffe7e6@news.eclipse.org...
>>>
>>>> I tried this report, and the chart fonts look fine both in SVG and
>>>> PNG. I use the 2.1.1 IDE build. Did you try to get the all-in-one
>>>> build for 2.1.1? Are you running in US locale by the way?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> David
>>>>
>>>>> For the screenshots I used the example report at
>>>>> http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/examples/reports/birt2.1 /combo
>>>>> ch
>>>>> ar
>>>>> t/index.php
>>>>> to make sure there isn't anything wrong with my report design
>>>>> itself.
>>>>> In this report the chart size is given in inches.
>>>>> David Michonneau wrote:
>>>>>> What size did you set for the chart? Is it in %?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Can you attach a sample report with the problem?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> David
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> here is a screenshot of how it looks on my machine:
>>>>>>> http://home.nc.rr.com/potato/birt/chart.jpg
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> it should look like this:
>>>>>>> http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/examples/reports/ 2.1/
>>>>>>> co
>>>>>>> mb
>>>>>>> oc
>>>>>>> hart/final.JPG
>>>>>>> Jan
>>>>>>> PS: a workaround was posted later in this threat, but a
>>>>>>> developer
>>>>>>> might still be interested in this problem. BTW, I switched JDKs
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> still have the same problem.

At least the problem is fixed, it might have been an old cached image in
your browser (unlikely if you also had the same problem in Firefox). Let
me know if the problem re-appears or if you can find the reason.

Thanks,

David

> Now _that_ is shocking. I have been struggling with this problems for
> many
> days (weeks?). I _know_ I tried various versions of Birt (stand alone
> 2.1.1 (with different JREs/JDKs); Eclipse 3.2.1 all in one; 3.2.1 all
> in
> one + updated plugins) and always had the font problem. Yesterday I
> deleted the height and width values for the chart in the report design
> (as
> recommended in this thread) and the font looked good. Now I can not
> recreate the font problem anymore. Even when specifying values for
> height
> and width the chart font looks great.
> I downloaded the example report again to make sure I didn't make any
> other
> changes -> still works fine. I can not make the fonts look bad
> anymore.
> I don't think it was a problem with the viewer (I tried the built in
> viewer and configured Firefox as an external viewer -> both had the
> problem).
>
> David Michonneau wrote:
>
>> Ok, can you try something: When you see the invalid image, right
>> click and save it to disk. Then open it with an image viewer (IE will
>> do). Is it still distorted or not? That will tell us if the problem
>> happens in Swing or if the size set by the viewer is somehow wrong.
>>
>> - If it's not distorted, can you check the image size with an image
>> editor, and compare it to the size set in the report design. Can you
>> also try to insert a regular image in the report, set its real size
>> in the properties, and see if it appears distorted when previewed?
>>
>> - If the image is distorted, it's probably something wrong in your
>> Swing lib. I would advise to uninstall/reinstall java, using the
>> latest version.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> David
>>
>>> I tried the all-in-one. I first encountered the problem in 2.1.1
>>> (when I first installed BIRT) but I'm using 2.2 at present.
>>>
>>> My systems are configured for US locale.
>>>
>>> "David Michonneau" <dmichonneau@actuate.com> wrote in message
>>> news:9c678db74f88c9084ae4ffe7e6@news.eclipse.org...
>>>
>>>> I tried this report, and the chart fonts look fine both in SVG and
>>>> PNG. I use the 2.1.1 IDE build. Did you try to get the all-in-one
>>>> build for 2.1.1? Are you running in US locale by the way?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> David
>>>>
>>>>> For the screenshots I used the example report at
>>>>> http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/examples/reports/birt2.1 /combo
>>>>> ch
>>>>> ar
>>>>> t/index.php
>>>>> to make sure there isn't anything wrong with my report design
>>>>> itself.
>>>>> In this report the chart size is given in inches.
>>>>> David Michonneau wrote:
>>>>>> What size did you set for the chart? Is it in %?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Can you attach a sample report with the problem?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> David
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> here is a screenshot of how it looks on my machine:
>>>>>>> http://home.nc.rr.com/potato/birt/chart.jpg
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> it should look like this:
>>>>>>> http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/examples/reports/ 2.1/
>>>>>>> co
>>>>>>> mb
>>>>>>> oc
>>>>>>> hart/final.JPG
>>>>>>> Jan
>>>>>>> PS: a workaround was posted later in this threat, but a
>>>>>>> developer
>>>>>>> might still be interested in this problem. BTW, I switched JDKs
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> still have the same problem.